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John Powers

John Powers is a New York-based sculptor who lost fingers in a table-saw accident and rebuilt his artistic practice around adaptation, exhibiting at MoMA PS1 and the Brooklyn Museum.

Oct 12, 2026

Hands In Motion

Hands In Motion

The Art of Adaptation

Oct 12 · 51m

CaraHOST
31:37
The second question would be the tactile part of sculpting and how did you adjust to that loss of tactile input, especially from your thumb?
John PowersGUEST
31:49
Yeah, I don't know that I entirely have is the answer to that second part.
John PowersGUEST
31:55
I started working early enough that it was really, it was like therapy.
John PowersGUEST
32:00
I knew that the quicker I could get back to work, the better.
John PowersGUEST
32:04
It was definitely difficult because I am not a particularly handsome or beautiful person.
John PowersGUEST
32:11
I have never been one of the beautiful people I don't have much vanity.
John PowersGUEST
32:15
I'm not a dandy.

6 MINS LATER

StephHOST
38:03
Bear hugger?

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